Best Engineering in the Past 100 years

[CWatters]

I second that (transistor) but add/expand it to semiconductor manufacturing. How many other fields of engineering can claim as many orders of magnitude improvement since invention?

 

[TeethWhitener]

Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution have saved more people than Jesus

 

[dlgoff]

I'm tempted to arbitrarily divide Engineering into two 'camps', named 'large systems' and 'small devices'.

An important "small device" that bridged a gap between electronic vacuum tube flip-flops and integrated circuit memory was magnetic core memory.
image compliments of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory

Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random-access computer memory for 20 years between about 1955 and 1975.

 

[Klystron]

Although Klystron mentioned it in passing, I think one of the very most significant feats in the last 100 years in terms of the impact it has had on the demographics and economy of the United States is the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. It is the biggest single infrastructure underpinning all the rest of the achievements.

You might say that it is silly to think that the highway system had much to do with, for example, putting a man on the moon, but I would strongly disagree. People generally don't realize the extent to which the growth of the American economy since WWII is based on the highway system.

Not silly at all. Included a pic of space shuttle being transported aboard a 747

 

[Andrew Mason]

One of the most remarkable accomplishments in science/engineering is the development of DNA sequencing technology. The impetus was the clever inventions of the PCR technology and, in particular, the use of Taq DNA polymerase (from bacteria that inhabit deep-sea hot thermal vents). The high speed and low cost of DNA technology that we have now has made it accessible to the masses and has led to all sorts of developments in understanding and treating medical disorders and disease. When the cure for cancer is discovered, it will be because of DNA technology.

I should mention Richard Feynman's "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" lecture and competition. I am not sure if the competition was all that successful, but the ideas he planted did catch on and miniaturization has revolutionized everything. (Feynman, of course, was not an engineer but I doubt that there was much in any engineering field that he was not able to figure out).

I would have to put the NASA moon landing up near top of the defining events in engineering. It gave the impetus to many new technologies, particularly large scale integration of electronics (microprocessor chips).

The invention of the laser was a remarkable accomplishment, as was the engineering that went into the reduction in size of lasers to the microchip level. What is particularly remarkable about the laser is that it was developed with no particular purpose in mind. After development it was more than a decade before it achieved any significant practical use. Now, lasers are everywhere only because Bell Labs pursued an idea.

The internet would have to be near the top of that list as well, of course. Google Map's technology and Street View is an engineering marvel that deserves mention. It is a remarkable combination of GPS, computer, camera and database technology that just works really well - and all the time. Who ever thought of creating it and thinking it could be done deserves a great deal of the credit. No one outside of Google has even attempted it, to my knowledge.

I would also have to put on the list the modern airplane and whole aviation infrastructure that supports it . Unfortunately, it is probably not sustainable in the long run. The future will have to be in high speed ground/undersea transportation of some sort. But one still has to marvel at the fact that our aviation system is a most remarkable, and safe, system for transporting people and goods around the world.

While it is truly a remarkable feat of science and engineering, I would not put the nuclear bomb (fission or fusion) on that list. While the bomb has impacted the world, its impact is mostly all very negative and I don't see a lot of useful technology that flowed from it. Reactor technology, while important in making the bomb should not be lumped in with the bomb and might deserve to be a separate item on the list.

Just my initial thoughts...

AM

 

[jim hardy]

An important "small device" that bridged a gap between electronic vacuum tube flip-flops and integrated circuit memory was magnetic core memory.

That stuff was great ! Completely nonvolatile.
We had 270k of it that pretended to be a disk drive. What fast access time it had !

 

[PAllen]

Best engineering, Rube Goldberg machines, best engineer, Rube Goldberg (even though not primarily an engineer).

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Putting a man on the Moon is darned cool.

But the invention of the personal computer has transformed the world. It's the parent of all phones, Speak & Spells, GPS systems and the internet.

I'll nominate the Global Positioning System (GPS), because there are lots of great innovations involved, and it is such a game-changer for navigation and other endeavors. In a strange twist, it also has helped to reduce collateral casualties in military bombing attacks. I know I couldn't make it to many of my shifts in strange places without navigation aided by GPS on my phone...



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System

How about the boston dynamics robots?
https://www.bostondynamics.com/robots

How about a smart phone? I think a device that knows where you are, can tap into the world's store of knowledge, can communicate with most of the rest of the people in the world, and fits in your pocket would be viewed as miraculous by people from even 100 years ago.

How about transistors that make all those things exist?

For a micro controller amateur enthusiast like me, that might be the most important small black thing ever existed.

Edit: Nothing. Already listed.

 

[phinds]

How about transistors ...

Already listed

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Already listed

Ok.Sorry, I missed that. Previous post edited.

 

[2milehi]

Nuclear weapons - man had the ability to wipe life off this planet. Not something to be proud of.

 

[mfb]

I would like to add two (okay, one and a group):

The ISS
It transformed an environment where humans can't survive even for a minute without help into a home for 6 people. It has been inhabited continuously for over 18 years now.
It also brought together engineers (and scientists) from many different countries.

Every big international engineering project
Examples:
SESAME - a synchrotron light source built together by Cyprus and Turkey, Israel and Iran and the Palestinian Authority, and a couple of other countries. People from countries that sometimes don't even recognize the other countries work together here.
ISS, see above.
Apollo-Soyuz project - USA and Russia collaborating in spaceflight in the middle of the Cold War
CERN's accelerator complex. Started shortly after the second World War by countries from both former sides working together.

They serve as examples how irrelevant the political differences between countries can be, and that you can work together even if the governments are close to starting a war. They also show how much more an international collaboration can achieve vs. what a single country can do.

 

[phinds]

Nuclear weapons - man had the ability to wipe life off this planet. Not something to be proud of.

I disagree. I think the achievement is something to be VERY proud of. The likelihood that we might do something stupid with it is a separate issue.

 

[BWV]

Claude Shannon developing logic circuits in certainly what was the greatest Master’s thesis ever

The Transistor

 

[phinds]

The Transistor

Third mention so far. I think we're in agreement.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Lots of great engineering mentioned in this thread. Picking winners is more like a beauty contest (much as is naming best science), so I'll make no pretense of objectivity.

The element of time pressure and the magnitude of the enemy make the Manhattan Project stand out to me. Of course, as a physicist, I'm also biased. And as long as I admit my bias, I'll also mention the invention of the laser.

My wife would probably mention artificial joints and automotive safety systems: seat belts, air bags, and so on. Survival rates in high speed crashes are truly impressive compared with what they were 50 years ago.

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Parachutes.

That save more people than most things,and it makes early space missions’ Earth return possible,like the Apollo missions.

 

[mfb]

There is no peer-reviewed double-blind study demonstrating that parachutes increase the survival rate of anything.

Edit: @PAllen found a negative result.

 

[Borg]

There is no peer-reviewed double-blind study demonstrating that parachutes increase the survival rate of anything.

I guess that it was difficult to get volunteers.

 

[YoungPhysicist]

I guess that it was difficult to get volunteers.

 

[dRic2]

Every big international engineering project

Hope to se ITER on that list as well... as soon as possible! :D :D

 

[BWV]

The Haber process - without which one would have had enough to eat to come up with other projects

With average crop yields remaining at the 1900 level the crop harvest in the year 2000 would have required nearly four times more land and the cultivated area would have claimed nearly half of all ice-free continents, rather than under 15% of the total land area that is required today.[19]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process

 

[YoungPhysicist]

The Haber process - without which one would have had enough to eat to come up with other projects

Mentioned twice.

 

[berkeman]

automotive safety systems: seat belts, air bags, and so on. Survival rates in high speed crashes are truly impressive compared with what they were 50 years ago.

Yes, truly impressive. I can attest to that from personal experience at many vehicle crash sites (I was not involved in the crashes, just the care afterwards).

 

[Buzz Bloom]

There is no peer-reviewed double-blind study demonstrating that parachutes increase the survival rate of anything.

Hi mfb:

But that is a scientific perspective. From an engineering perspective it is not necessary to do double-blinds.

However, I did enjoy the humorous thought.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Borg]

automotive safety systems: seat belts, air bags, and so on. Survival rates in high speed crashes are truly impressive compared with what they were 50 years ago.

Yes, truly impressive. I can attest to that from personal experience at many vehicle crash sites (I was not involved in the crashes, just the care afterwards).

Similarly, the change that was made to automobiles bumpers. Previously, pedestrians tended to be forced under the car when struck. Moving the height of the bumpers to below the knee now tends to force pedestrians over the car in slow speed impacts making them far more survivable.

 

[BillTre]

Very fun thread @anorlunda!

1)
Simplest new thing with a big effect:

The screw driver for cordless drills.

Small simple design, big benefits for those putting things together.
Add magnetic adapter and cordless drill and you get better, faster, easier construction for everyone, usable almost anywhere.

I chose not nail guns because I like screws better: better hold, easier to disassemble.

2)
Second choice, a category: the tools and techniques of molecular biology --> molecular engineering.
This will lead to many revolutionary developments in medicine, biology, human evolution as well as the evolution of many other species!

 

[TeethWhitener]

Not technology per se, but it's difficult to understate how radically the field of industrial engineering (i.e., logistics, lean manufacturing, etc., even something as trivial seeming as the standardization of shipping container sizes) has revolutionized the way we live. Just one of many many examples: I can get an orange in the dead of winter for a few cents, and it doesn't even occur to me that it's extraordinary.

 

[anorlunda]

It isn't clear what "best" means

That's deliberate. With "best" in the title, there are no right answers or wrong answers.

As an aside, the mixing of inks components was also key to the ball point pen success.

Wow can I attest to that. I'm left handed. Ball point pens in the 50s and 60s had terrible ink that smeared the paper as my hand dragged over it. Never could write legibly, and never could get the left edge of my left palm to be other than blue for 20 years.

 

[gmax137]

I'm not the oldest one here but the desks in my first & second grade classrooms still had inkwells in the far right corner. not that we used them for inking our pens (quills?). i do remember the blue fountain pen ink cartridges and the leaky pens they went into. most of us kids used the Bics.